
Class 

GopyrigtitN!' 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSITS 



The Faun 

and other 

Poems 

BY 
GENEVIEVE FARNELL^BOND 




BOSTON 

SHERMAN, FRENCH ^ COMPANY 

1913 



.\\ 






copykight, 1913 
Shermajt, French ^ Company 



• CI.A354971 



/ V 



n 



DEDICATION 

There is a somewhat in the souls of men 

That urges them to consummate their deed — 

To struggle on and on_, unheeding when 

They meet with failure, or mayhap succeed. 

It may not matter though the way be long, 
Or if we go alone unto the close — 

There is one thought to bid the heart be strong: 
Somewhere along the path is one who knows. 



A WORD AT THE BEGINNING 

My old-time friend, Genevieve Famell-Bond, 
whom I have known well as a free-lance of the 
pen, journalist and editor, brings me her first 
book of verse for a word of introduction. 

Perhaps I might say that a book of poems 
needs no introduction : for poetry carries its 
own passport to the heart. Perhaps some may 
say that we already have enough books of 
poems — that this is an age of science and not 
of song— that it is a time for dollars and not 
for dreams. But this is only the wisdom of 
the foolish. For the soul of man, like the dry 
earth, needs renewing from time to time. Po- 
etry comes as an April rain of the spirit, to 
call out new blade and blossom, to keep alive 
in man the sense of youth, the feeling of morn- 
ing and romance. 

So we welcome this new poet, with her shallop 
of song that lifts its sail to take the winds of 
fortune. May it find summer seas and quiet 
havens, where the warm wind 

"Trembles across the harp of greening boughs." 



In this freight of song there is nothing that 
pleases me more than "The Faun." Such a 
passage as this has in it an echo of the voices 
of the morning: 

Sometimes you hear me in the dawn — 
The little-horned, fleet-footed faun: 
You'll see a ripple as I pass 
And shake the dew-pearls from the grass, 
A shadow through the gray morass, 
So quickly gone. 

And when the gold-god of the day 
Comes wheeling up the azure way, 
Sometimes I pipe on flutes of Pan 
To stir his droil soul if I can 
With sweet dismay. 

Edwin Markham. 

West New Brighton, 
New York. 



Many of these poems have appeared 
in The Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazar, 
The New York Herald, The New York 
American, The Los Angeles Times, 
The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, 
Hesperian Tree and other publications. 
The poem from which the volume takes 
its name was one of a hundred by 
American poets, originally selected and 
published for the first time in "The 
Lyric Year" by its editor. Thanks are 
due to all of these publications for per- 
mission to republish. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Faun 1 

The Star Child 4 

A Sea Memory 5 

A Lost Song 10 

Prayer IN Silence 11 

Birth 12 

Die Walhiire IS 

The Source 15 

The Paupered Rich 16 

The Master Heart .17 

My Bride o' May 19 

Love's Keep 20 

Soul Union 21 

Wind of the Night 24 

Sensitive Plants 25 

For Ella Wheeler Wilcox . ; . . . 26 

To Robert Burns 27 

To One Reading from Swinburne ... 29 

Ballad of Lilies 30 

Mid-wood Spirit 32 

The Harbinger S3 

Ashes of Roses S5 

At Valley Forge 36 

The Poet Dead 37 



PAGE 

Thanksgiving 38 

At the Grave 39 

Risen 40 

The Hunger 41 

A Little Lie 43 

The Time Has Come 44 

The Poor Relation 45 

A Spring Memory 47 

Dame Propriety 48 

A Warning Word 49 

Meeting and Parting 50 

In Light and Shadow ...... 51 

A Kiss 52 

Valentine 53 

An April Way .54 

A Child's Kiss 55 

To A Child's Soul 56 

The Book Spirits 57 

The Awakening of Magdalene ... 58 

White Violets 61 

Supplication 63 

Renunciation 64 

The City of the Dead 66 

A Rose-leaf's Pressure 67 

Paris^ Good-bye 69 

After the Storm 70 



PAGE 

The Soul of the Snow 71 

Song 73 

Sonnet to a Rose 75 

Moonlight Villanelle 76 

Song at Night 77 

If I Should Come 78 

Spirit of Fire 79 

Kiss Me— You ! 80 

Love Me While You May 81 

The Passionate Song 82 

Shall We Discover? . 83 

A Maiden's Heart 85 

Song of the Coquette 86 

A Climbing Rose 88 

To A Shy Swain 89 

Invocation to Love 90 

The Holy Grail 91 



THE FAUN 

Sometimes you hear me in the dawn, 
The little-horned, fleet-footed Faun ; 
You see a ripple as I pass 
And shake the dew-pearls from the grass- 
A shadow through the gray morass. 
So quickly gone. 

Lo, when the first faint-throated note 

Of feathered songster is afloat, 
A soft call on the silvered air 
Will tell you that the Faun is there 
To lure you to his leafy lair. 
Through paths remote. 

I hide to watch the ruddy sun 
Light up each dew-globe, one by one, 
Until, with opalescent blaze, 
A-spangle is the rosy haze 
That lies along the wooded ways 
Where I have run. 

And when the gold god of the day 
Comes wheeling up the azure way. 
Sometimes I pipe on flutes of Pan 
Soft pulsings never made of man. 
To stir his droil soul if I can 
With sweet dismay. 



[1] 



One day I lay at golden noon 
With calm content half in a swoon — 
The world ablaze with brazen heat 
Beyond my leafy, green retreat — 
But here the brown earth cool and sweet, 
A- joy with June. 

And then she came ... all clad in white, 

Her eyes mysterious as night ; 

Her lips were red and ripe and young, 
Her hair a faint gold halo flung ; 
About her all the fragrance clung 
Of youth's delight. 

And sinking to a leafy vale. 

She sang a melancholy tale : 

"Though Love has never come to me, 
To-morrow I a wife shall be. 
The church all sweet with melody 
And roses pale. 

"I shall have wealth and brave attire. 

And all the people will admire! 

Though he be what the world calls old. 
Though callow youth may term him cold, 
All shall be bought with gleaming gold 
In my desire." 



[2] 



Nimbly I blew a little tune, 

And trembling stopped, with gentle croon 
Until the maiden fell asleep. 
Lest she should hear me slyly creep 
Beside her in the grasses deep . . . 
And then eftsoon 

I bent me to her shell-pink ear. 
And whispered that her heart might hear: 
"Lo, all about you in the grass, 
In every cranny that you pass. 
Is greater wealth than men amass 
With toil and tear — 

"Are little lovers, two by two. 
With hearts that sing and wildly woo ! 
And all the voices of the trees 
Are throbbing with Love's rhapsodies ; 
And these alone may bring heart's ease 
To such as you ! , 

"From far the lion seeks one mate — 
He calls to her with heart elate ! 
And to your lips this kiss I press 
That waking you shall know no less. 
Till Love comes in swift eagerness 
I bid you wait !" 



[3] 



THE STAR CHILD 

Blustering winds blow out of the West, 
Shaking the windows ; away in the night 
Glitters Aldebaran's far ruddy light. 
Clinging and curled in his warm, soft nest. 
Close to a love-laden, brooding breast, 
Peering afar at that star all bright. 
The scion of numberless aeons lies — 
Yet not so old that the stiU surprise 
Of morning has fled from his mystic eyes. 

"I lived in that star world, in ages past. 
Before you were mine," he whispers ; "But cast 
My love through the silence, seeking you, dear, 
Until your love caught me — lo, I am here !" 



[4] 



A SEA MEMORY 

I DID not know — I could not guess it, 

My flesh was young, and Earth was new; 

My soul, confused, would not confess it. 
That Love had come, and brought me You. 

And yet my tears rushed up in wonder — 
Your eyes leapt to me through the crowd. 

Drove doubt and laws and lies asunder. 
As blade of sunlight cleaves a cloud. 

The silence then was very tender — 

How could we speak who felt so much? 

For Truth had naught to bar nor bend her, 
Nor to disguise her mystic touch. 

One night beside the sea, low-singing, 
We wandered, and the little stars 

Upon her shining breast were swinging. 
And love and life might have been ours — 

Our own, dear Heart, just for the taking; 

We leaned and laughed with clasping hands, 
Love, when we heard the wild waves breaking. 

Before they eddied up the sands. 

Then you arose in sudden glory. 

The sea surged, circling, at your feet, 

And I recalled the old-time story. 
And all the world grew still and sweet. 

[■5] 



I knew then, in the young world's splendor, 

In ages gone — with pulsing feet 
How I had run, all wild and slender. 

The early morning sea to greet. 

And when into her salt arms springing 
I swam, lithe-limbed, upon her breast, 

I listened to her strange soft singing. 
And felt her heaving, fierce unrest. 

Then leaping from the waves, all shining, 
I shook the sea-drops from my hair. 

The sea-weeds 'round my white limbs twining, 
I turned, and saw that you were there. 

That day, as now, your great eyes Tield me. 
Warm, glowing in the morning light. 

And your imperious youth compelled me 
To love and fear you — and to flight. 

You followed, and the crags were ringing 
With the wild rapture of your song. 

From rock to rock my white hands clinging, 
You followed, fierce and straight and strong. 

And then the mists came grayly floating — 
Came floating inland from the sea; 

One backward glance, soft laughter throating, 
I sprang, and you were lost to me. 

[ 6] 



And yet from my high cliff I heard you — 
I heard you singing through the night 

The wild, sweet dream that pained and stirred 
you, 
Yet lured you onward to delight. 

"Come down to me, you wild sea-spirit, 

Or I shall die of loving you ! 
My heart is gentle — never fear it ; 

But fly from me, and I pursue ! 

"Come down to me — I've waited, waited 
Through the white morning of my youth 

Unstained, that when we met and mated 
I should be yours in God's pure truth. 

"Come down to me ! Your fragrance fills me 
With strange, quick summonings of fire ! 

Come down ! Your hesitating kills me ! 
Come to me, girl of soul's desire !" 

And when the gray mists broke asunder, 
I saw you 'neath the morning star; 

And then the sun's first gleaming wonder, 
A burning, blood-red scimitar. 

We stood together in the morning, 

A strange, sweet shyness on our souls, 

Love's first faint flush our brows adorning 
With little fleeting aureoles. 

[7] 



You bent your head, your red lips pressing 

Upon my brow the bridal kiss, 
Our young lips tasting and confessing 

Love's tender sacrament in this. 

One moment — then our star-white rapture 
Was pierced with sudden shaft of fear ; 

The Sea leapt hissing up to capture 
The slender form you held most dear. 

What though you cleft the waves and called me, 
And beat your head upon the sand. 

The Mother Sea had crossed and palled me, 
My senses could not understand. 

And yet my spirit surged above her. 
And wept my sorrow at your feet. 

And whispered, "I'll come back, my lover. 
One day, and make your joy complete!" 

And in your dark, salt locks I lingered, 
I kissed with tears your swooning eyes ; 

I pressed upon your breast, soft-fingered, 
With showers of little sorrowing sighs. 

And when I came again, I knew you, 

Your lips, your eyes, your touch of fire ! 

Just as of yore I drank and drew you 
Into my dawning dream's desire. 

[8] 



And then — and then I hesitated, 
That later night beside the sea, 

When all the world was re-created, 
With wealth of joy for you and me. 

Oh, if your heart the draught of sadness 
Has drained, it does not drink alone ; 

Those times your sorrow burns to madness, 
I match its passion with my own. 

Sometimes, a-dream, your eyes all burning 
With elfish laughter seek my own. 

Your lips, red, tender, warm and yearning. 
Your soft hair dark, and all sea-blown. 

Now will we always go together. 

Sweet soul, though we be far apart, 

That morning kiss our bridal tether — 
And none but you shall know my heart. 

And I, dear, shall no longer fear you 
As in that morning mist of yore ; 

My soul must hover ever near you. 
E'en as the sea must seek the shore. 

And when we wake from this sad dreaming, 
I'll wait beside the Mother Sea, 

For after all the pain and seeming 
She'll lead you back to Love and me. 

[9] 



A LOST SONG 

Do you remember that sweet moment, dear, 

When roses hung in spiraled, rich perfume 
Above the porch, and red squirrels chattered 
near. 
And bluejays flashed adown the summer 
bloom ? 

A robin's lonely nest deserted hung 

In thick of tangled vines, where all day long 

The wee hen brooded, till her heart was wrung 
By storm that robbed her home of hope and 
song. 

The sun hung toward the west — you came to me 
Your dark hair drenched, your dear face 
tawned of toil, 

Your eyes a-light with love, so good to see. 
About you still the fragrance of the soil. 

And oh, your wooing lips were warm as earth — 
They sought my own in gathering gray of 
night ; 

The cricket hushed his eerie note of mirth. 
And roses shed an incense of delight. 

And listening now to music's mystic strain 
In glare of jeweled light and satin sheen, 

I would we had our kingdom back again — 
The riotous realm of Love, the nest of green. 

[10] 



PRAYER IN SILENCE 

Lord, give me but the power to hold the pride 
For which my flesh has been so crucified; 
And give me power to smile on friend and foe, 
With heart-uplift, that they may never know. 

The wounds of Love, its raptures or its pain 
Sink in the soil of souls, and are fhe grain 
From which are sprung the fairest harvests, so 
In quiet and in secrecy they grow. 

Lord, that I have the strength to brave and 

bear. 
The veil of smiling silence let me wear. 
Lord, let me fight my battle in the dark, 
Alone, unaided ; let the stillness hark 

Alone to my heart's struggle ; let my hands 
Alone tear up each rock that ragged stands 
To bar my way, and rend my quivering flesh. 
From far, free heights there blows a breeze all 
fresh 

With purity from crests of virgin snows ; 
Deep — deep into the mettled breast it goes, 
To stir the ruddy blood to meet its chill, 
To nerve the spirit with its quickening thrill. 

Lord, that I have the strength to brave and bear. 
The veil of smiling silence let me wear. 

[11] 



BIRTH 

Let the winds play soft, and the winds play 

light 
For a soul — for a soul that is born to-night ! 
Let us enter softly, and kiss the feet 
Of the mother, lying pale and sweet. 
Let us lift the infant from her face. 
And fold it in a close embrace. 
Let us hold it far from where man has trod, 
Let us hold it up to the throne of God, 
And pray with the strength of a deep desire. 
Till he bends and he sends in a quivering fire 
His breath through its soul, as a wind-swept 

lyre! 
Oh, the winds that are weeping soft and light 
For a spotless soul that is born to-night. 



[12] 



DIE WALKURE 

(After hearing Wagner's opera) 

Ever the wild, weird music of that night 

Sweeps the ^olian fibres of my soul: 
Tempestuous warning from a barren height 

Stirs through the deep-gloomed forests, till 
the whole 
Cimmerian storm comes bellowing; crashing 
trees 

Batter their regal heads in dazed alarm. 
Furious the Gale pursues — ^unfettered flees 

The glacial Torrent from his longing arm. 

Loudly she mocks him in her wild descent, 
Flinging her stinging tresses in his face ; 

Fiercely he curses gods that aid her bent, 
Urging to greater speed his breathless pace. 

She pales and sickens — for her maddened pride 
Death yawns before her in a black abyss. 

She leaps ! — he clasps her, passion's highest tide 
Trembles a moment in his consuming kiss. 



[13] 



Darkness enfolds their forms : her pride, his love 
Wed in destruction. Bald hills tower above — 
Below a waste of water rocks to rest 

Colossal ruined forests on its breast : 

While comes a wail from the storm-ravished 

hollow 
As of a wanton spirit, "Follow — follow !" 



I iM 



THE SOUnCE 

Geant me to rest a little while apart 

In the sun's morning, mist-dissolving dart. 

For I am weary of the feel of things ; 
Let me but listen to the tender thrusli, 
Hear the soft whir of him in upward rush. 

Beating the sunlight with his brown, blithe 
wings — 

Here, where the bare earth wakes from winter 

swoon ; 
Here, where the warm wind's low and gentle 

croon 
Trembles across the harp of greening boughs ; 
Here where the brook bursts, bounding, as with 

life 
Newly attuned to recreative strife, 

Stirring the slumb'ring seeds from snow-girt 

sloughs. 

Would I could carry word to the heart of man 
How the fleet seasons over your bosom ran, 

Mother, whose coldest touch is a caress. 
Ever reviving hearts to bliss of being, 
Ever the pent-up fire of spirit freeing — 

Thnllincp once more with life and Love's ex- 

o 

cess. 



[1.3] 



THE PAUPERED RICH 

I WATCH them, regal-ermined, tier on tier, 
Unmoved, serene — while music's pulsing tide 
Swells ever upward, spreading high and wide. 
Lo, now it shakes with fearsome prophecy, 
Then luring, light, with momentary glee, 
Rolls forward to the deeps of tragedy. 

And far aloft a raptured, panting soul 
Peers whitely from her hair's bright aureole — 
Her modest raiment crossed upon a breast 
A-quiver with a glorious unrest, 
The music's wild, sweet storm of life and 

death 
Indrawn with every palpitating breath. 

And then I bring the haughty faces near, 
I touch the pulses of them, young and old, 
I touch their lips and hearts, and find them 
cold. 
O barren brows, the silken, jeweled snood 
Will bring no fine, high rapture there to 
brood! 
Though music beat its ecstasy and pain 
Upon you, when its tide shall ebb again 
'Twill leave you unimpassioned, dull and sane. 
Though outward power and grandeur may 

ca j ole. 
There is no beggary like a paupered soul. 

[16] 



THE MASTER HEART 

"I CAURY the world in my heart," said the 
Prophet of old; 

"I live in the scars of the past, and the story 
untold ; 

I live as the fruit in the seed from the sow- 
er's hand flung; 

I live in the song of the bard, and in measures 
unsung. 

I flame in the sunset, and rise in mysterious 

dawn; 
I live in the roar of the lion, the cry of the 

fawn. 
I glitter in Mammon's desire, in the greed of 

the sea ; 

In famine of body and soul is the essence of me. 

The master and slave, both oppressor am I and 
oppressed, 

The king in high state, and the beggar in me 
are confessed. 

The bearer of burdens — the toiler 'neath sweat- 
ing and tan — 

Behold him, rough-hewn in my image, for I am 
that man ! 

I rose through the ages, through terror and 
lusting and strife. 

But followed my star till I mastered the mean- 
ing of life; 

[17] 



And out of the tragedy, under the far eastern 

sky, 
I came with the comfort of man and his heart's 

hungry cry. 

"And you whom I love — you must fare through 
the labyrinth, too. 

Unravel the meaning of all — yea, the false from 
the true ; 

And knowing, must grow in the silence, while 
clinging to naught ; 

And yet you must love, and the things you have 
other times sought 

With greed, little heeding the souls you un- 
knowingly slew — 

In giving and serving alone shall bring joy unto 

you. 

"So love, little brother of oxen, of rock and 
of tree, 

And loving, you rise, for you still are the 
brother of Me. 

I carry the world in my heart, with its blessing 
or ban ; 

I love you, and lead you to brotherhood, chil- 
dren of man !" 



[18] 



MY BRIDE O' MAY 

Month of May — Month of May, 
You are all too far away ! 

What a wealth to me you bring — 
Eyes in whose abysses dwell 
All there is of heaven and hell ! 
Heaven to know you will be true, 
Hell to wait and long for you — 
Heart a-flutter 'neath a breast. 
Loving, timid and distressed ; 

Lips that cleave, and kiss, and cling. 
Fingers glowing, tipped with fire — 
O my Love, the sweet desire 
Just to hold you — hold you so. 
And to never let you go ! 
Month of May — Month of May, 
You who bring my wedding day ! 



[19] 



LOVE'S KEEP 

LOVE, you hold me hard against your heart — 
The veil that shrouds my soul is torn apart 
By the wild throbbing of your pulses, dear; 

1 melt into your being without fear. 

For thus you pledged my future surety, 
You kissed my lips, but kissed in purity. 
You wound me in your arms, but held me there 
Away from mine own fetters of despair. 

O Love, the little moon may wax or wane. 
The fitful Seasons fret the Earth in vain. 
So you shall hold me as you hold me now, 
With that sweet, tender light upon your brow! 



[20] 



SOUL UNION 

Sweet soul, inviolate presence rarely known 
By fleshly touch or contact ever near, 

Your thoughts, transcending time and space, 
are shown 
My heavy heart, in forms as crystal clear ; 
Your mortal voice in ecstasy I hear. 

To me by soft immortal breezes blown. 

Your eyes of burning brown upon me play. 
As strong as stars that pierce the gloom of 
night, 
Look through mine own as only those eyes may. 
Illume my reveries with visions bright. 
That leap to meet your thoughts as moths to 
Hght, 
When soul and soul unite in rhythmic sway. 

A union tangible by earthly minds 

The Destinies forbid ; yet One more high 

Unites us in a stronger tie that binds 

The intellect and soul, and lights the eye 
With triumph to a state which ne'er shall 
die, 

As Time his endless thread of life unwinds. 



[21] 



One moment only, in a dazzling dream, 

I felt you turn your peerless soul to mine ; 

There shot athwart my heart a golden gleam 
Which filled my breast with tremblings di- 
vine: 
For following fast the glorious glowing line 

Our souls have traveled, until now they seem 

Merged in a union of transcending bliss — 
I saw you stand within the shadowy space 
From which my mind was wont your form to 
miss; 
Then hand and arm and lip, face pressed to 

face, 
The physical as souls we interlace. 
United in a never-ending kiss. 

We see the marvelous mystery unroll 

Of all that must in mating pure be given — 

Life, body, heart and hand and mind and soul ! 

Our throbbing breasts, with sudden rapture 

riven. 
Dissolve the clouds of doubt through which 
we've striven 
At last to reach Love's one imperious goal. 



[22] 



The dream is vanished, and the golden blaze 
That wrapped about our raptured wedded 
forms, 
And filled us both with wonder and amaze, 
Enthralling both our souls with passioned 

charms. 
Has left to each within bereaved arms 
The sad, sweet spirit of those ravished rays. 

O Soul of me, this parting must be best — 
For would we not forget in Love's delight 

Our fellow-beings, and our duty's test 

Through lifer But now each soul is strong 

in right, 
And aids the other shape the silv«r flight 

Of hallowed song, that all the world be blest. 



[23] 



WIND OF THE NIGHT 

Out of what uncanny, weird abyss, 

Wild wind of the night, 

Do you wing your flight? 
With your sad, soft sigh, your deathly kiss 

On the window pane — 

Then you slowly wane. 
The breath of a thwarted, maddening bliss. 

From the pale, far glimmer through the trees 

Comes whispering low 

A shuddering woe. 
With burd'nings of your mystic pleas ; 

E'en the Pleiads pale 

As your eerie wail 
Floats over the clouds' dark billowy seas. 

Do you come with a message from the dead? 

Do you strive to speak 

To a soul you seek. 
As you pass each shadowy, sleep-stilled bed? 

In your measured moan 

Do you bear the tone 
Of a voice now into the darkness fled? 



[24] 



SENSITIVE PLANTS 

TO EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN 
October 8, 1903 

Where the south breezes sweep in rapt unrest 
Over ^olian pines, on Earth's brown breast, 
Frail, sensitive filmy fingers grope through the 

night — 
Grope shadowy green in the moon, for the Sun's 

large light. 

In the dark hours through which young spirits 

grope 
You feel the fire of all their high hearts hope ; 
And leaning from Song's sacrificial height, 
You hail them on, and harbor toward the light. 



[25] 



FOR ELLA WHEELER WILCOX 

Woman of fate — brave daughter of the Norns, 
Whose face has caught the far auroral light 
That burned through ages drear and dumb 

with blight — 
Serene and young of spirit, then as now, 
Beneath the topaz tresses on your brow 

I saw the impress of the wreath of thorns. 

There was no way too perilous for your feet, 
There was no fear of all you had to meet 

In testing of the spheres ; and there arose 
Out of the tortuous ways of loss and pain 
A woman, sure of soul, who came again. 

To lead where the white light of wisdom glows. 



[26] 



TO ROBERT BURNS 

Scotch Bardie, there be those who name you 
With questioning, and seek to shame you 
For roistering muckle at the tavern. 
For mocking at the holy cavern 
Where Moody held at bay old Hornie, 
And damned you to the pathway thorny. 

You left full many a heart a-buming, 
For your bland, bonny presence yearning: 
For woman's een were your undoing, 
And ever set you warmly wooing. 

But Bardie, there was One who gave you 
A cup o'er full, and were't to save you 
You could not carry it unspilled. 
Impetuous, yearning soul, soon chilled 
By petty lives, whose meagre measure 
Could not contain your heart's whole treasure. 

And Bardie, we who follow after 
Must love you for your lingering laughter — 
A lilt for souls sincere, but danger 
For ilka man to truth a stranger. 
Hypocrisy fled as from kelpie 
Before the een of Ayr's young whelpie : 
They pierced the vain veneer of snobbery, 
And scorned the savor of nabobber}^ 

[27] 



So, Bardie, brave as wind untethered. 
And wilful as the wave foam-feathered, 
The warm earth odor clings about you; 
No son of toil will ever flout you — 
More proud and passionate than sinning. 
We love your singing, wild and winning. 



[28] 



TO ONE READING FROM 
SWINBURNE 

Thy wondrous power doth animate and waken 
The slumbering souls and shadows of the 
past : 
The fair Faustine, her deadly passion shaken 

By mad voluptuousness, full fiercely cast; 
And Nero's childhood, youth and manhood's 
shame. 
Fast following o'er the resurrected years — 
The Choral Hymns enwrapped in sacred flame, 
Time's Triumph 'merging from a wail of 
tears ! 



[291 



BALLAD OF LILIES 

TO HELEN HEYL 

"Behold us drooping on our stately stalks, 
Fair flowers of grace in rapturous repose ; 

Plucked in Bermuda from cool, quiet walks, 
And seeking to thy bosom to disclose 
That which the vaunting, vain, voluptuous 
rose 

Could never to thy senses half convey — 
A message that with gentle gladness glows !" 

The snow-white, soft, sweet-scented lilies say. 

"Each flower the flaming fire of passion mocks. 
And bids thy hot hands, trembling, to un- 
close. 
Nor long to quiver in repeated locks 

And clasps, which but increase desire, with 

those 

That sent us ; but our mystic music throws 

About thee, murmuring low. Love's languorous 

lay. 

That o'er thee as a day-dream dimly flows !" 

The snow-white, soft, sweet-scented lilies say. 

"Still e'er with lingering love each blossom wells, 
And tells he holds thee purer than the snows 
Untouched by human foot — where no man 
dwells ; 
He sends thee joy with every breeze that 
blows, 

[30] 



And constantly with thee his fond heart goes. 
His thoughts are all for thee at dawn of day 

Until the sinking sun portends its close!" 
The snow-white, soft, sweet-scented lilies say. 



l'envoi 



O lady, heed ! where this love-lily grows 
A heart is waiting, restive for the day 
When thou shalt answer the sweet words he 
knows 
The snow-white, soft, sweet-scented lilies 
say ! 



[311 



MID-WOOD SPIRIT 

A PERFUME stole upon me, faint and sweet — 
A breath of mid-wood in the early Spring ; 
And then I heard a night-bird lightly fling 

A soft caress from out its far retreat. 

The young Spring spilled her hallowed ecstasy 
In rivers of white moonlight on the night ; 
Then came a thrill of delicate delight — 

A wild, warm promise of the day to be. 

Come, send your magic on the heart of man. 
Elusive mid-wood spirit; melt the crust 
Of wintry ice that weighs him to the dust: 

Too long in silence lie the pipes of Pan. 



[•32 1 



THE HARBINGER 

Before the Spring has even sent a breath 

across the sleeping earth, 
I throw the casement wide to let the sunlight in 

upon the hearth. 

Then sweet, invisible presences come peering, 

pressing through the rooms. 
With silent laughter, palms aglow, and spilling 

ravishing perfumes ! 

One time I almost thought I caught the flutter 

of a garment ! Heard 
A voice, mysterious and low, bend to my ear 

this whispered word: 

"Lo ! I am young, and full of joy! for I am 

born of Ecstasy ! 
Come out with me across the waste, the wonders 

of my world to see ! 

"Lo ! how you waste with this and that the 

guerdon of a golden day! 
1^0 ! how you flounder in the mesh of self-spun 

Duty's web of gray ! 



[331 



"Lo! how you grovel through the gloom with 
eyes bent down in seeking God! 

Lo ! you malign Him as a monster brandishing 
a chastening rod! 

"He's pouring out the sunlight's gold from the 

great bowl of blue above ! 
Come out, and give him gold for gold, and joy 

for j oy, and love for love ! 

"Come out — come out, and learn the news that 
through the woods is whispering!" 

I followed. Lo! and in the boughs the flutter 
of a bluebird's wing! 



[34] 



ASHES OF ROSES 

Would it console you, dear, if you could know 
That I, from all the glitter, gain and glow 
Turn wearily, and try to live again 
Those hours so sweet — and oh, so free of pain? 

Would it console you, dear, to know your hands 
Still draw me, as two strong, impassioned 

bands — 
Still draw me, till the refuge of your arms 
Engirdles me, from all the hurts and harms? 

Would it console you, dear, to know the dream 
Still fetters me, and makes the present seem 
Unreal and gi'ay, and oh, so strangely cold 
Without your love — for Fame's poor guerdon 
sold? 



[35] 



AT VALLEY FORGE 

O MAN of Fate, who passed with warrior tread, 

Stern, sorrowing among the fallen dead. 

Who wept that men must feed red battle's 

gorge, 
Your great heart wrung in prayer at Valley 

Forge, 
What did your soul breathe forth in proph- 
ecy— 
What promises to starving Liberty? 

There, as you knelt upon the barren sod. 
Your naked soul came face to face with God — 
Burned white with passion for tKe thing you 

sought. 
And in that hour a miracle was wrought: 
As if from a dread lethargy alarmed, 
Sprang palpitating Victory, full-armed. 



[36] 



THE POET DEAD 

TO JOAQUIN MILLER 

Child on whose brow the white star of the 
morning 
Set a strange seal that the brotherhood knows, 
What was the word of that last whispered warn- 

What shall we say of you now at the close? 

You who came out of the mystery singing, 
Child of the Sunland and Occident seas. 

Back into mystery silently winging, 

What is the word that shall bring us heart- 
ease? 

Lo, you have scattered a nebulous wonder 
Over the toil-troubled spirits of men — 

Torn the gold gates of the dream world 
asunder. 
Leading us into Love's morning again. 

Far on the heights where your songs faintly 
tremble. 

Follow we into the rose-misted dawn — 
Follow the way where the white souls assemble — 

Up through the mystery, on and still on! 



[37] 



THANKSGIVING 

Yes, I am thankful, though my life must be 
Forever as a lightning-stricken tree: 
For once I brought the roses to her face, 
And folded her away in Love's embrace. 

Mine were the eyes to drink the parting smile 
That lingered on her pallid lips a while; 
Mine were the hands that laid my sweet to rest, 
The red rose and the lily on her breast. 

days of darkness, days of doubting drear, 

1 often feel her presence pressing near; 

And then, how sweet the fleeting moments seem ! 
Be glad, my heart, for we have lived the Dream ! 



[38] 



AT THE GRAVE 

They think you have fled from my life as far 
As the wan watch-light of yon cloud-swept star. 

Nay — they could not bury you out of my 
sight, 
Though they builded a mountain over your 

head : 
But they little know you are not of the dead. 

They would say 'twas the play o^ light on the 

grass, 
As I watch you lithely pass and repass ; 
They would say 'twas the voice of the distant 

sea 
As you lean your lips and whisper to me ; 
They would say again 'twas the damp of the 

dew 
When your hands touch mine, and draw me to 

you. 

They would whisper, ''Crazed with the grief 
of the night !" 
Never knowing the phantom gates of death 
Dissolve in the flame of Love's pleading breath. 



[39] 



RISEN 

For this my soul with pain was wrung, 
For this my heart to anguish flung, 
For this my path with thorns was set. 
For this my burden of regret — 
To blame no one. 

For this Love's sun a moment blazed, 
Then left me, cold, alone and dazed; 
For this low lies the pallid brow, 
And scarlet lips are ashes now — 
To blame no one. 

O you who braved the deathly night, 
Then rose again in God's white light — 
Lord, it is even so with me. 
My soul is risen, I am free — 
I blame no one. 



[40] 



THE HUNGER 

I MET a pair of eyes, one day, 

That o'er my own 
Held an unspoken, subtle sway: 

For sadly shone 

Out through their lakes of blue a ray, 

As if to say, 
"I am alone — and while you may 

Oh, come away!" 

No word was needed as I passed 

Into the day ; 
And then your whisper near, "At last 1 

Tell— tell, I pray— 

"What does it mean, O Heart, that you 

Should cross my path, 
With subtle power of glance to woo 

Love's aftermath? 

"Why should you hail me, breathing Spring 

And soft delight, 
As from my sorrowing heart to fling 

Wan Winter's blight?" 

"Give me your hand," I said; "I came 

To touch your soul 
With mine own spirit's quick'ning flame, 

And make you whole. 

[41] 



"Out of the dust of sadness, lo 

The rock of Fate! 
Build you the Dream in joy — oh, go! 

Heart, do not wait. 

"Waste not desire in useless grief — 

Build, build, white hands ! 
Your work is great, and time but brief — 

God understands. 

"Your passion brand into your deed — 

Create, create ! 
God answers to your crying need — 

Heart, do not wait ! 

"Pour passion like a molten fire 

Into your art ! 
It shall transfigure your desire 

Till life shall start 

"Beneath your stroke!" I've done my deed- 
Nay, it is so ! 

No hungry flesh — a soul I feed ! 
I go — I go. 



[42] 



A LITTLE LIE 

A LITTLE He — it was not much, 
Had you not told it ; many such 
Are used each day to fence and foil, 
To shelter intrigue, gather spoil. 

A little lie — and yet its smart 
Was keener than a poison dart 
Straight at my heart ; because of you 
It pierced my being through and through, 

I knew the truth, yet did not start. 
Nor tear you from my troubled heart. 
You did not think — you could not know. 
Or you would not have dealt the blow. 

I know this wound you would abjure, 
I know your love is strong and sure. 
You could not be to me less dear 
Than you have been ; and yet a fear 
Stings strangely, and with venomed hiss 
Steals all the freshness from your kiss ! 



[43] 



THE TIME HAS COME 

The time has come, dear heart, 

I must be on my way; 
What though the tears may start. 

You may not bid me stay. 

The heart may falter now. 
In Love's last sweet delay — 

But speak no earthly vow, 
I must be on my way. 

You cannot say farewell — 

Your lips are drawn and cold. 

What shall the days foretell ? 
The moon is growing old. 

'Twere better that we part 

Than lose Love's last sweet shred- 

'Twill spare the keener smart 

1 • • ^ • 

When Love lies chilled and dead. 

Kiss me — the last, long kiss 
Shall be so solemn, sweet. 

For all the days we miss. 
The future incomplete. 

Strew white flowers on the hearth. 
Among the ashes gray — 

The last long look on earth: 
I must be on my way. 
[44] 



THE POOR RELATION 

She bends above her rations, and forbears 
To lift her eyes the while the jest goes round; 

For sneers and heartless jibes she little cares — 
Her sensibilities one cannot wound. 

The witty thrust went home without a pang, 
Though barbed and poison-flecked with irony ; 

So often she has felt derision's fang 

That strangely calloused has she grown to 
be. 

Yet when she sees the faces of the young 
About her, softly laughing her to scorn. 

An unsuspected living nerve is wrung, 
And in her side the pricking of a thorn. 

Perhaps her memory harks back to days 

When she was slender-limbed and fair of 
face. 

With liquid eyes of innocence, and ways 
Of winsome modesty and girlish grace. 

Where has she wandered with the weight of 
years 

That drag her feet upon a downward path? 
Flogged on by poverty and hate and fears. 

Consumed by malice, jealousy and wrath — 



[45] 



Belittled, spurned, and humbled to the dust, 
Defiantly she eats the food of wealth, 

By deprivation poisoned with a lust 
To get, by force, by flattery or stealth. 



[46] 



A SPRING MEMORY 

The mocking bird has broken silence, lo ! 

I heard him in the dawn through drift of 
dreams — 

I saw him float through faint auroral gleams 
That from the cup of morning overflow. 

He plunged into the golding greenery 
Below my w^indow — then a burst of song 
Soared up exultingly, and lingered long 

In little running runes of ecstasy. 

And soon he will be singing through the night 
To cheer the vigils of his brooding mate — • 
Pour forth the wonder that the twain await 

In measure of delirious delight. 

And so one night he sang when Life was young 
Among the pinewood fragrances, and sweet 
Was every trembling breath, and the heart 
beat 

With Love's ecstatic cadences unsung. 

A silent moment, then the pulsing thrill 

That swept a singing rapture through Love's 

lyre, 
Enduing it with sudden, vibrant fire — 

O haunting memories, be still — be still! 

[47] 



DAME PROPRIETY 

ANCIENT dame, why do you dwell, forsooth, 
So bitterly upon the ways of youth? 
Why should you draw your brow so angrily 
Because Aurora's ways are glad and free? 
Because her pursing lips are good to kiss. 
And her warm eyes are challenges to this? 

1 think you scarce so generous to joy 

You could have drunk her draught without 

alloy ; 
I think you stole in pitiful deceit 
Your scant enjoyments, thus yourself to cheat, 
Not knowing God had made the heart to sing 
His living psalms in rapture's fluttering. 

Sit you devoutly down in churchly pew, 
Praise Providence that glorifies in you 
Those barren virtues you are forced to bear, 
Because you were not brave enough to dare 
Life's whirlwind of experience, and now 
"Too late !" is written on your bloodless brow ! 



[48] 



A WARNING WORD 

It isn't worth while to offend 
Your friend, 
Merely to spar in a war of wits, 
Heedless of where the missile hits — 

You may never say where it all may end.. 

Sweet is the delicate touch 
Of such 

As needs no speech to understand ; 

Warm is the pressure of the hand — 
And oh, you will miss him much — so much! 



[49] 



MEETING AND PARTING 

What can it matter, friend — what of the past? 
Since I have found you, from the lyre of life 
A dreamy chord is drawn, with beauty rife — 
With portent vast. 

What of the weights that drag, the ties that 
bind? 
Though of the body life shall take its toll, 
We shall discuss the merits of the soul. 
All unconfined. 

We shall not hesitate to go our ways 

Apart, with but the pressure of a hand — 
Enough it is that both shall understand. 
Through all the days. 



[50] 



IN LIGHT AND SHADOW 

In turning Life's kaleidoscope, 

I saw its figures run 
In ardent, flaming colors ; hope 

Shone through them as a sun. 

I saw bright faces come and go. 

Alive with life's desire. 
Alight with Love's intensive glow. 

Thrown from Youth's trembling fire. 

As bits of colored glass they fell 

Together and apart, 
Enacting, as beneath a spell, 

The drama of the heart. 

O shapes of shining symmetry, 
That stumble, cling and grope. 

You all are wonderful to me. 
Through Life's kaleidoscope. 



[51] 



A KISS 

I NEVER shall forget her troubled eyes, 
Nor that sweet look of maidenly surprise 

She raised to me, 
When I, swift darting as a hawk, leaned down 
And lightly kissed her mouth. She did not 
frown — 

But I could see 
The sudden color rip'ning o'er her lips ; 
Then sable sorrow spread its brief eclipse. 

Her little sobs, as she leaned on my heart — 
I feel them now, and memories stir and start 
Like sap that feels the early vernal sun! 
But Love and all Love's ways for me are done. 



She tore herself away from my embrace. 
And looked, a moment, mutely in my face; 
Then fled away from me, with birdlike whirr. 
Over the fallen spears of pine and fir — 
And all the light of life went out with her. 



[52] 



VALENTINE 

I AM a sunbeam, you are a child ; 

All melting and sweet is the weather ; 
A breeze stirs the bronze of your hair, warm 
and wild. 

And mingles our treasures together. 

I fly from you over the trees' jewelled 
heights ; 
You follow with limpid, soft laughter. 
And catch with your baby hands leaf-filtered 
lights — 
I fly, and you ever come after. 

I am yours so divinely — yet yours not at all; 

I melt in your eyes' tender glowing; 
You cry as I leave you at sable nightfall, 

And both are undone at the going. 

But when all is still, and in slumber you lie, 
A-dream with our innocent blisses, 

I come in a moonbeam, and, lingering by, 
I cover your red mouth with kisses. 

So if you be far or if you be near, 
I always must hover above you; 

Of all the world's guerdon to me the most 
dear — 
I love you — I love you — I love you! 

[53] 



AN APRIL WAY 

Just we two on an April day — 

Just we two on a violet way ; 

Woods aglow with a feathery green. 

Ruby and gold like fire between. 

Nay, is it wrong that my heart is a-flutter, 

Full of a joy that it may not utter? 

Just we two where the brook breaks over 
Spreading leaves of an early clover. 
Glance of an eye, and touch of a hand, 
Stir in the boughs, and we understand. 
Life is a-thrill with a new-bom beauty — 
Love, shall we garner its precious booty.'' 



[54] 



A CHILD'S KISS 

TO BEATRICE 

Child of the burnished gold and brown of 

spring 
Before the showers the flowers of April bring, 
Child of the pale and roseate hues of morn 
Before 'tis of its dew-steeped sweetness shorn — 

Child, in whose sunny smile and prattle seems 
A mystic sense of undiscovered dreams, 
There is no holier sacrament than this — 
My soul is chastened by thy stainless kiss. 



[55] 



TO A CHILD'S SOUL 

O CHILD, what ligbt stole out from your soul 
untried, 
And bade you cling to my hand with a stifled 
sob, 
As if the thought that our ways must now di- 
vide 
Stirred strange forebodings, a-thrill in your 
wild heart's throb? 

In yonder hom6 that shelters your white, frail 

form 

Is there no soul to answer your inward cry. 

That you should rush on my heart with tears 

all warm? 

And what of the years' mysterious prophecy? 



[56] 



THE BOOK SPIRITS 

I CANNOT be alone, with all my books 

To comrade me, and light me on the way; 

They hail me from their crowded, shadowed 
nooks, 
And promise me some treasure for the day. 

It seems to me that voices from tlie past 
Hold high converse about me, as in dream, 

And phantoms luminous about me cast 
An essence as of sunlight's April stream. 



[571 



THE AWAKENING OF MAGDA- 
LENE 



Within the Garden of the Princes, hedged 

With oleanders, aloes and with myrrh, 
A woman lived, to Love's allurements pledged, 

For every Grace had spent its wealth in her. 
Strong hands had led her forward on the way, 

Their pulses thrilled by an exotic madness ; 
It seemed the whole word bended to her sway, 

And she was buoyed by Youth's resplendent 
gladness. 
A prince who loved her built a splendid hall, 
And there she reigned the queen of one and all. 

The silken-sandaled hours danced joyously. 
And brought her jewels rich and raiment 
rare ; 
Love held his chalice to her lips that she 
Should drain the last sweet drop of rapture 
there. 

But on a morning, near the hour of noon. 
When all the land lay in a golden swoon, 
A strong foreboding filled her with unrest, 
And shook the jeweled claspings on her breast. 
A minstrel from the resonant psaltery 



[58] 



struck forth the dominant seventh, and he 
sang 
A low, sweet lay of Love, as Love should be — 

Eternal, sacrificial. And a pang, 
A sudden sense of surfeit and of cloy 
Came, shadowing the Magdalene's joy. 

II 

Along the white road, through the noon-day, 

still 
Save for the drowsing locust's droning thrill, 
Down from Bethsaida passed a stranger fair. 
The sun's bright aureole upon His hair — 
His raiment humble, and His feet were bare. 

Simply He moved, with a majestic grace. 
While those beside Him peered into His face. 
Like little children seeking Truth's replies 
From 'neath the lids of those mysterious eyes. 

Ill 

"Who is yon stranger? Bring him here — to 

me! 
For I am minded much his face to see. 
He draws me — draws me — nay, I cannot wait ! 
The chamber stifles me — throw wide the gate !" 
And Magdalene rose with sudden fire, 
Her soul consumed by palpitant desire. 
Her lovers round about, with quick alarms, 
Builded a bulwark of restraining arms, 

[59] 



Through which she broke, and left them stand- 
ing there; 
The sunlight coppering her streaming hair, 
She fled, and panting stood before the eyes 
That held naught of disdain, nor yet surprise. 
She gazed and trembled, sank into the dust. 
Her face aghast with sudden, pallid shame: 
She knew at last that in Love's hallowed name 
She had descended to the hell of Lust. 



[60] 



WHITE VIOLETS 

AN EASTER MEMORY 

I 

I COULD not pray as I knelt me there 
Before the cross, with its burden fair 

Of wan white lilies, with chaliced cup 
To the lips of the Holy One held up ! 

I could not pray, though the organ thrilled 
Out over the altar ! Incense filled 

The morning twilight of blue, still mist ; 
A sunbeam, entering, softly kissed 



The golden heads of the choir boys, bent 
O'er small, clasped hands ! For my heart was 
spent 

In memory of an Eastertide 

That gilded a Georgia pine-wood wide. 

And somewhere out of the fragrance stole 
The scent of violets over my soul ! 

II 

He was very young — his heart was wild 

The woods a-flower, and the sweet Spring smiled ! 

[61] 



White soul of woman, forever lent 
To draw man nearer his highest bent, 

You led his footsteps out of the mire- — - 

But Spring was there, and your heart took fire ! 

He gathered you suddenly to his breast, 
And softly his lips to your own lips pressed ! 

Ill 

White violets bloomed, and I faintly heard 
The thrill of the mating mocking-bird. 

Soared up in melodious unrest, 
Then sunk in joy to the hidden nest ! 

IV 

It is wrong to think of him thus, I know, 
In holiness of the Easter glow ; 

But gently, under the thorny crown. 
The face of the Holy One looked down. 

The scent of the violet white was there. 
My heart still young, and the morning fair! 



[62] 



SUPPLICATION 

Help me, Master, that I be 

Guided in simplicity ; 

Let me live in all I feel 

When alone with You I kneel; 

When my soul is as Your own — 

When I hear Your placid tone 

Quieting a heart's distress, 

Soothing all its bitterness, 

Then through me, Master, speak! 

Let me touch the heart I seek. 

When my love is backward flung 
As the surf that boldly clung 
To a bleak and barren rock, 
Shuddering from the seething shock — 
Let the spirit of the Deep 
Through my billowy being leap. 
And forgetting all the pain. 
Let me surge with song again — 
Let the laughing rollers break 
Till the crags of Wrath shall quake, 
Crashing from the shores above, 
Conquered by the tide of Love! 
Let me warm the soul that's bleak. 
Let me touch the heart I seek. 



[63] 



RENUNCIATION 

I SENT you from me, dear, for it was best ; 
I sent you at my heart's most high behest. 
Your face has haunted me a-down the night, 
Your eyes have held me through the still hours' 
flight. 

And if I slept, you reached with longing arms, 

In whispers wild poured forth your soul's 
alarms, 

Sobbed out your hungered heart in rapt un- 
rest — 

I sent you from me, dear, for it was best. 

Then with the moon's pale glitter came the 

gray— 
A little far-ofl* flush, and it was day. 
We shall recall, though Love has been our guest, 
How on that night of nights we held the quest 

For all that should mean truth to you and me — 
'Twas then we learned what sacrifice may be. 
You put me gently from that last embrace — 
All softened was the passion of your face. 

And I could lay my head upon your arm 
Believing I was shielded from all harm ; 
And then I told you I could stand the test — 
In that still hour you knew and loved me best. 

[64] 



O eyes that swam with rapture unattained, 
O lips that burned and trembled, but refrained, 
We chose the better way — the lesser pain : 
That kiss untaken is our dearest gain. 



[65] 



THE CITY OF THE DEAD 

I VISITED the city of the dead — 
The city of the life of long ago; 

I saw as in a dream each aging head, 

I watched the stream of shadows ebb and flow. 

I felt a sudden aching at the heart — 
A longing for the friends of long ago ; 

What mystery had drawn us far apart? 

The Sphinx of Time, whose secret none may 
know ? 

And there was gray upon the hair and face 
Of many a one, the while the rose of youth 

Still touched the dreamer with its ardent grace, 
And held her loyal to the spring-sweet truth. 

What was it aged them, while one had to go 
Eternal girlhood stamped upon her brow? 

Was it some truth of life they would not know — 
Some self-dug chasm 'twixt the then and now? 



[66] 



A ROSE-LEAF'S PRESSURE 

I COULD not think of you as mine, and yet 
My heart was in a strange and fitful fret ; 
I knew that you had pledged away your faith, 
But yet the thought of you hung as a wraith 
Upon my famished eyes and hungered lips. 
And tingled to my trembling finger tips. 
Strange that my wayward soul should sting and 

smart — 
Strange that a rose-leaf should so hurt my 

heart ! 

Your words had stolen on me, sweet and slow, 
Almost with love, caressingly and low ; 
You waked me gently, so I scarcely knew 
If it were dream, or could this thing be true. 
I found that I had drifted far to sea. 
And you upon the white sands, lost to me ! 
Then I was pierced with agonizing dart — 
Strange that a rose-leaf should so hurt my 
heart ! 

I cried aloud, I battled for the shore, 

I threw me at your feet, beloved, once more ; 

I crushed in mine your strong but silken hand, 

I panted words you could not understand ; 

Content no more to bow beneath the rod, 

I rose in radiance, as a raptured god; 

[67] 



I flung the fetters from my soul apart, 
And pressed the rose-leaf to my throbbing 
heart ! 

We seemed to float afar in misty space — 
I saw beneath my own your paling face ; 
Your eyes were fixed in limpid light a-swoon, 
All sorrowing as the white impassioned moon; 
I knew our lips had mingled, but no more. 
For with a mighty wakening, I tore 
The precious peril from my breast apart — 
Oh, take this rose-leaf from my burning heart 

Go from me — go ! I would not have you be 
Less than the idol you have been to me; 
To warm, white womanhood you must be true — 
No less is worthy, peerless one, of you. 
One wild sweet thrill of rapture I have known, 
And I will bear my burden hence alone — 
A fragrant burden to the world's sad mart, 
A rose-leaf from the ashes of my heart. 



[68] 



PARIS, GOOD-BYE 

The waves have hurled our lost good-byes 

Afar upon the baffling deeps ; 

Amidst their solemn echoing sweeps 
A stillness softening the eyes, 

With calmer musings of regret. 
And yet 

A lurch, a quickening flight, 

A fitful looming in the night 
Has rent apart one only tie 
That bound your heart to mine — good-bye 

The gulf between is deep as death, 
A soul asleep ! If yours could flee 
Through conquered space, and come to me. 

And touch my heart's web with the breath 
That 'neath your radiant breast should lie, 
'Tworuld verberate with song — good-bye ! 

I wish the night were not so blue; 
If there could come the wild alarm 
Of thunder, and the forked storm 

Should crash its justice over you — 
If only you might feel again 
The self-stained soul's awakening pain, 

I'd clasp and cling to your first sigh. 

For I might love you then — good-bye ! 



[69] 



AFTER THE STORM 

The day was dawning, and the sea was calm — 
Still as a baby cuddled in its sleep ; 
Tender and pale, but oh, so deep — so deep ! 

Singing the sky a low and sorrowing psalm. 
I cannot help but know and love you best 
When the glad Gale descends to your heaving 

breast, 
Lashing your seething spirit to unrest. 

Receive your stormy lover, mighty Sea ; 

Nor strive against him and his princely love. 
He comes not to you with a slavish plea, 

But bears you in his arms, below, above. 
Laughing to see your grand soul struggle so, 
Shouting, "She'll yield to me — my bride, I 
know !" 

And yet you sent him from your longing breast. 
And lie in pure white light, so still and calm, 

A wealth of pain and passion unconfessed, 
Singing the sky a low-voiced, sorrowing 
psalm. 



[70] 



THE SOUL OF THE SNOW 

I COME with a rush and whirl, 
With flutter and flurry; 

All silent and soft I swirl 
In my breathless hurry. 

I bury the barren blight 

Of the Earth's cold anguish — 
I rest in my frenzied flight 

Where the bare boughs languish. 

When withering whirlwinds shriek 

In their wrathful revel, 
Over perilous mountain peak. 

And the stubbled level — 

I ride in their spirals curled, 

To their own undoing ! 
I comfort the mourning world 

With my wild, warm wooing. 

I wrap it in dreams away 
Till it stirs in sleeping, 

The thrill of the dawning day 
Through its pulses leaping! 



[71] 



Then, lo ! from a silent place 
A gurgle and gushing! 

The fire of my keen embrace 
With a vernal rushing 

Up-flames into brown little buds, 
As with laughter I flee 

Away on the riotous floods 
To my lover, the Sea! 



[72] 



SONG 

Seest thou not how the twilight is fading 
Far, into amber and amorous seas? 

Hearest thou evening's breezes persuading 
Kisses from sorrowing, whispering trees? 

Seest thou not that the shadows are stealing 
Slowly o'er mountain and meadow and sea? 

Hearest thou not silver vespers are pealing, 
Floating afar into faint meloiij? 

Let us forget all the cares that have bound us 
Fast to the furrowing sorrows of day. 

Yield to the breeze's caressing around us, 
Yield to the spirit's empassioning play. 

Let us float down the soft stream of thy sing- 
ing, 

Minstrel of melody, singer divine, 
Into the region of ecstasy flinging 

Silvery flights of the dreaming of thine. 

Why should we linger o'er doubt or delaying 
When the deep strain of your rapturous song 

Over our quickening pulses is playing, 

Thrilling and luring, and lingering long? 



[73] 



Let us float down the soft stream of thy sing- 

ing, 
Minstrel of melody, singer divine, 
Till the caress of my soul's silent clinging 
Maketh the throb of thine ecstasy mine. 



[74] 



SONNET TO A ROSE 

Sweet rose, the fairest of all flowers, seeming 
In luxury of beauty to combine 
The greatest virtues of all flowers divine. 
As thou'rt among thy fair companions beaming, 
My heart with rapturous throbs of love is 
teeming ! 
Mysterious rose, when first I held thee mine 
Thou wouldst the donor's feelings deep de- 
fine. 
And silence both our hearts into a dreaming; 
Then through that fleeting hour of bliss I 
wore thee, 
And reveling in thy perfume found delight. 

No flower I'll care for, rose, as I adore thee, 

Though thou wilt fade ere yet I see thee right; 

And I must live, dear rose, and e'er deplore 

thee; 

How brief thy bloom — and then eternal blight. 



[75] 



MOONLIGHT VILLANELLE 

Silver Cynthia breaks the gloom! 

Bathing in her mystic light, 
Fragrant showers of roses bloom. 

Come, our wanderings we'll resume. 

For, upon this silent night. 
Silver Cynthia breaks the gloom ! 

All the earth she doth illume, 

E'en those nooks, where, in delight. 
Fragrant showers of roses bloom. 

Shadows lurk like things of doom. 
But in streams of dazzling white 
Silver Cynthia breaks the gloom! 

Come with me, where weirdly loom 

Trembling, shadowy forms of might! 
Silver Cynthia breaks the gloom — 
Scented showers of roses bloom. 



[76] 



SONG AT NIGHT 

I WONDER what your dream may be, 
Dear Heart, to-night — of me? 

I wonder if you feel my touch, 
And if you miss me much? 

I stare up at the naked stars — 

It seems their silver bars 
Withhold the vision of your face, 

And you from my embrace. 

Perhaps the starlight filters now 

On your uplifted brow ; — 
Oh, tear the dazzling veil apart, 

And rush upon my heart ! 



[77] 



IF I SHOULD COME 

If I should come and kiss you in the night, 

When all the world in slumbering silence lies, 
O Dearest, would it wake you with delight — 
If I should come and kiss you in the night? 
And would you start, and tremble in surprise. 
Uplifting through the dusk your wondering 
eyes? 
And would you smile, and clasp me to your 

breast 
Until my cheek upon your own should 
rest ? 
O Dearest, would it wake you with delight. 
If I should come and kiss you in the night? 



[78] 



SPIRIT OF FIRE 

Spirit of Fire, 

Why did you fan the flame of my fleet desire, 

Quick'ning my burning blood in its ebb and 

flow. 
Billowing chaste unrest on your breasts of 

snow ? 
Spirit of Fire. 

Dew of the dawn in your eyes' dark dreaming 

sleeps. 
Cleft when the wakening dart of passion leaps 
Forth in the pleading pulse of your lips, so 

near 
Ecstasy strikes to my soul in nameless fear, 
Lest I should clasp and crush you in mad 

caress, 
Losing your soul in Love's warm wilderness — 
Spirit of Fire. 



[79] 



KISS ME— YOU! 

Between my palms I clasp your hand 
To try to make you understand; 
I look and look into your eyes 
To clear them of their soft surprise. 
O, trust me, girl of dawn and dew — 
Kiss me — you! 

I am so strong that in my arms 
I hold you, 'spite of your alarms ! 
I feel the flutter of your heart 
As of my own it were a part ! 
And I am shaken through and through- 
Kiss me — you ! 

Your head held on my shoulder so, 
The wild warm roses come and go ! 
Your scarlet lips are very near — 
And, oh, you are so dear — so dear! 
Why should I kneel, and humbly sue? — 
Kiss me — you ! 



[80] 



LOVE ME WHILE YOU MAY 

They tell me hearts should ever guarded be, 

In Spring — soft Spring, 
When little buds are greening hedge and tree, 

And wild incenses fling; 
That Youth's unfettered fancies will betray 

Some sweet enraptured day ! 
But dear, I feel the Heart's one treason 
To turn from Love, and follow reason, 
In springtime's joyous, throbbing season; 

So love me — ^love me while you may ! 

When scented petals scatter in the wind, 

So cold — so cold! 
When autumn's gold and crimsoned woods are 
thinned. 

And all the world grows old. 
Then chilling Age, all pallid, bent and gray. 

Will come sweet Love to slay! 
Ah, Heart of mine, the world's one treason 
Is to turn from Love, and follow Reason, 
In springtime's joyous, throbbing season; 

So love me — love me while you may ! 



[81] 



THE PASSIONATE SONG 

Shall. I lie asleep through the coming years, 
Or my heart burst forth into passionate song 
That has tortured and torn my soul so long? 

Let us bury the cowardly train of fears, 
Let us banish the burning fangs of wrong, 
And, my heart, burst forth into passionate 
song! 

Let us fling the fetters of Fortune's pawn — 
Let us say, "O Heart that has starved so 

long, 
Lo, Love shall waken your passionate song !" 

And you, O Lover, far out in the dawn, 

As you break the clods on the hard, cold way, 
Arise from your labors, and hear my lay, 
And follow its winding out of the mist 
To the peak of Joy, by the sun's rays kissed. 
We have built the way full brave and alone — 
That day was Duty's, but this is our own ; 
And the night shall follow, how sweet and 

long! 
And our hearts burst forth into passionate 

song. 



[82] 



SHALL WE DISCOVER? 

When I was a child, as I leaned to the water, 
That danced as a nymph through the heart 
of the wood, 
I wondered what magic the forest had taught 
her. 
And sometimes believed that my heart un- 
derstood. 

The words that I caught, as she whispered and 

bubbled 

With sun-dimpled merriment over the rocks. 

Were full of wild joy! — but a tone low and 

troubled 

At times broke the flow in a series of shocks. 

When music awakened me, sweeping and sur- 
ging 
Up over my heart in a wonderful thrill, 
I felt, with the fine throb of ecstasy merging, 
That low, troubled tone, and its ominous 
chill. 

Dear Love, when I look in your eyes, with their 
splendor 
Of promise, a glory brims over my life; 
Then something strikes into the harmonies 
tender — 
A pang with Love's delicate languor at 
strife. 

[83] 



Dear Heart, when our love shall have reached 
its full measure 
And all lesser things shall have paled in the 
past, 
Say, shall we discover the infinite treasure — 
The wild song of absolute rapture, at last? 



[84] 



A MAIDEN'S HEART 

A maiden's heart is rapt in wild, sweet 
wonder — 
The birds and bees and blossoming, 
The blue above, and billows booming under 
Strange whispers to her untaught bosom 
bring ; 
But when the twilight hour begins to darken. 

And crickets 'nedth the rose-tree sing. 
Such yearnings in her young eyes lean and 
hearken, 
That tears unbidden from their fountains 
spring. 

"Oh tell me, bird, swift winging to your little 
mate. 
What is it stirs my breast 
With such a wild unrest? 
O Moon, up-soaring white from heaven's east- 
ern gate. 
How soft your tender light 
Enfolds the dreaming night ! 
O evening Breeze, that whispers through the 
wav'ring trees, 
What secret do you know 
To make them tremble so? 
Shore, upon whose bosom break the seething 
seas. 
Unseal to me — ah, yield to me 
That mvstic word of ecstasy !" 
[85] 



SONG OF THE COQUETTE 

To-day I am so happy, the world is all a-glee, 
A song of joy is bursting from every greening 

tree ; 
My raptured heart goes dreaming a-down 

youth's summer sea, 
Because my own true loved one has plighted 

faith to me ! 

But should the tempest gather to blacken 

heaven's blue, 
And if my own dear lover prove false instead 

of true — 
Do you think for the untrue one I should sigh? 
No ! — I'd laugh, and get another — that would 

I! 

He clasped my trembling fingers, he drew me 

to his breast. 
He whispered words the sweetest that ever lips 

confessed ! 
Though years should ravage roses on cheeks 

now fair to see. 
He swore that he forever would keep his faith 

with me ! 



[86] 



But should he break this moment of maiden 

ecstasy, 
And plight unto another the love he pledged 

to me — 
Do you think for the untrue one I should sigh? 
No — I'd laugh and get a new one — that would 

I! 



[87] 



A CLIMBING ROSE 

If I were but a climbing rose — 

What would I do then? Goodness knows, 

I'd climb up to your window, dear — 

I'd climb and nod, and peep and peer ! 

I'd learn the secret of that art 

By which you capture every heart ! 

I'd boldly swing into your room, 

And fill it with a sweet perfume; 

And if you dared to venture near, 

I'd reach right out and kiss you, dear! 



[88] 



TO A SHY SWAIN 

Why, look you, Sweetheart, how you limp and 

halt! 
Your speeches fall and flounder, shy and vault ! 
Is Love's dear tongue so hard, in sooth, to 

learn ? 
His tender graces, then, so hard to earn? 
Is this the best that you can do — ask whether 
I really think we'll have a change of weather? 
Then sit in silence twirling at your thumbs, 
Or crush your cigarette up into crumbs? 
And all the little precious moments flying — 
And Love, disgruntled, in the corner crying! 



[89] 



INVOCATION TO LOVE 

Come to me softly as a summer shower, 
Veiling the ardor of the midday sun; 

Come as the cooling breeze on budding bower, 
When day is done. 

Steal on my senses with the kiss of sleep, 
Gently enfold me as the summer night, 

Clothing my dreams, through which your heart- 
beats creep 
With visions bright. 

Touch of the hand, and virgin touch of lips — 
Oh, hold them purer than young April days ! 

Fresh as her flowers with faintly flushing tips. 
In wooded ways. 



[90] 



THE HOLY GRAIL 

Dear Heart, we may not know the reason why 
The cup of life is brimming bitter-sweet — 

What mysteries within the goblet lie 
To make the cycle of a soul complete. 

We shall remember when the days have run — 
We shall recall it where the shadows fail ; 

And when we lift the goblet to the sun 
Behold the vision of the Holy Grail. 



[91] 



OCT 25 1^18 



imi«SLl?,^. CONGRESS 



ooTrs'ST""* 



